Saturday, December 16, 2006

More MMORPG Ideas...

Following The Wild Geese-Players are going to be in a big world. How big? The map is easily 1.5 times the size of Earth, in flying ships that can do 400-500 mph at most. And, unless the players stake out a territory with their own cities (and to do this takes a lot of time and effort), or it's staked out by game-generated content (like massive dungeons/artifacts that have to be raided), the world is going to...change ever so slowly but certianly. The mountains stay...but the pass you used may be gone tomorrow.

Magic reshapes the world where sentient minds aren't around. And, of course, there is the wylds...

Making Your Way In The World-Players have a job in the game-if they got the skills, they can take a job in a town, and when they're off-line, they earn a little bit of coin and a little bit of experience. And, you have to be off at least fourty hours a week, or else you become a freelancer, which means you have to pay rent on your Room (think of it as a D&D Portable Hole that's...a room). Player guilds and ship crews are considered "jobs"-and if your player is off line, an homunculi takes their place-a NPC that can die (but the player doesn't die) and earns experience doing exactly what their job is or defending themselves if attacked (and people that kill the homuculi will only get as much experience as an equivilant monster).

Shipboard Time-There shouldn't be a thing on a ship that a player can't do, if he has the skills. Gunners running cannons (maybe a console-like station, similar to a warship sim), where players can take shots at an enemy ship. Characters with engineering skills can repair damage on the ship, players that have medical skills can heal people. Artifacers (people with skills to make artifacts) can create replacement parts, specialized ship-scale ammo, and similar items. Ship captains can use their skills to make aiming better (and ships with the really fancy and advanced fire directors can do Salvo Fire attacks...which do more damage), manuver the ship, and rally the troops. And, anybody that has a gun or blade...can defend the ship against boarding attempts.

Game Metaplot-There is a game metaplot, and it spans across the various servers. Each metaplot has three or four "resolutions", and the average of those resolutions becomes what changes in the game world. Between the six or so major factions, another ten or so minor factions, cabals within the factions, player characters, and NPCs (that actually specially-designed "players" run by the game staff), the metaplot will move...